An Ontological Model for Fire Evacuation Route Recommendation in Buildings

Abstract

The study of the evacuation of buildings in emergency fire situations has deserved the attention of researchers for decades, particularly regarding the real-time guiding of occupants in their way to exit the building. However, finding solutions to guide the occupants evacuating a building requires a thorough knowledge of that domain. Using ontological models to model the knowledge of a domain allows the understanding of that domain to be shared. This paper presents an ontological model that pretends to reinforce and deepen knowledge of the domain under study and help develop solutions and systems capable of guiding the occupants during a building evacuation. The ontology was developed following the METHONTOLOGY methodology, and for implementation, the Protégé tool was used. The ontological model was successfully submitted to a thorough evaluation process and is publicly available on the Web.